Latest from Healthcare Law Insights

In January of 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (“CMS”) implemented a helpful change to the signature exception to the Stark Law. In particular, the exception may now be used more than once during a 3-year period for compensation arrangements with the same referring physician.
History of Signature Exception
The signature exception to the Stark Law has undergone several revisions within the past few years. The original version of the exception was…

On April 24-26, The National Association of Accountable Care Organizations held its semi-annual conference for members. NAACOS invites its business partner members, including Husch Blackwell, to attend their semi-annual meetings. Scott Loftin, a Healthcare Regulatory Associate in Husch Blackwell’s Denver office, and I were fortunate enough to attend the conference on behalf of the firm. This conference provided an opportunity for us to listen to the issues, challenges, concerns, and ideas ACO leadership are…

On Wednesday, April 17, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit heard oral arguments in an appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in Horton v. Midwest Geriatric Management LLC. Although the forthcoming Eighth Circuit decision would add to the split among the federal circuits as to whether the prohibition against sex discrimination in Title VII applies to discrimination based on sexual orientation, today’s order list indicates that SCOTUS…

If you track national health care policy developments, you’ve been busy lately.
Following weeks of growing declarations from Democrats in support of Medicare for All, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tamped down exuberance over any plans to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Then the US Justice Department spoke up.
In a March 25 statement to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, Justice Department lawyers said US District Court Judge Reed O’Connor’s ruling…

As provided in the Texas Register on March 22, 2019, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (“HHSC”) has proposed several amendments to Title 1 of the Texas Administrative Code, which include amendments to the rules and procedures for preventing and investigating Medicaid fraud and abuse.…

First in a series.
Like it or not, the 2020 presidential election campaign is well underway. With it comes the latest in public policy ideas, including more attempts to overhaul health care in the U.S.
The phrase “Medicare for All” has captured the minds, if not the hearts, of several candidates and an impressive portion of the voting public. It has shifted the conversation about health care in politics, at least temporarily, away from both…

This year’s National Home Infusion Association (NHIA) conference kicked off with the 2nd Annual Sterile Compounding Forum. The well-attended track provided an overview of the state of sterile compounding, insight into the most common citations confronting sterile compounders, considerations for compliance and risks relating to compounding, background on how states and the FDA are implementing rules and regulations, including those involved in the delivery of home infusion products.
We are pleased to sponsor the NHIA …

For decades, pundits, policymakers and consumer groups have called for better tools to make health care purchasing decisions easier. Greater cost transparency and clear indicators of quality, they say, would help consumers make the right choices, which would lead to lower costs and better quality care.
If only it were as easy as using Angie’s List: describe the need and up pops the names of local providers, along with comparative information on their performance.
Increasingly,…